Schedule stuff

For those who like to plan ahead when it comes to Cal football, the Bears will play their first three games of 2013 at Memorial Stadium — Aug. 31 vs. Northwestern, Sept. 7 vs. Portland State and the big one, Sept. 14 against Ohio State.

Although the just-concluded Cal season was a horrible one, the Bears actually had a good chance at beating Ohio State on the road. And Cal’s impressive win over UCLA looks even better for the excellent season the Bruins put together under first-year coach Jim Mora.

Also in 2013, Cal will play Arizona, Oregon State, USC and Washington State at home while going on the road to face Colorado, Oregon, Stanford, UCLA and Washington.

The schedule will be finalized by the Pac-12 Conference in early January.

The Bears have an interesting pair of home-and-home games in 2015 and 2016 against San Diego State and Texas, leaving room for one seemingly “gimme” game to go with nine conference games.

Cal will host San Diego State in 2015 and play the Aztecs in San Diego in 2016. With Texas, Cal goes to Austin in 2015 and hosts the Longhorns in 2016, specifically Sept. 10.